Absolution in Red
by Lealah Lupin III
Summary: In Christian mythology, the sea symbolized the washing of sins, so it only seemed fitting that people returning to individual form would wash up from the LCL sea. For Gendo Ikari, it represented a new chance. T for safety.


Disclaimer: I don't own Neon Genesis Evangelion, that honor is reserved for the good people at Gainax and its creator, Hideaki Anno.

Authors Notes: So, this is my first Neon Genesis Evangelion fic. Please do be too harsh, eh? Thanks. This is my version on what happened after End of Evangelion. Let me clear up a few points, please. Yes, I do think Gendo Ikari died when Unit 01 bit him in half, but he was my favorite character and I want to see him at the end of the world, dammit! I took his apparent OOCness from what he said to Yui during End of Evangelion about why he treated Shinji like he did, not to mention his last words were "Forgive me, Shinji." I am also usually a big proponent of purism in anime and manga, such as keeping manga in the same right to left format and keeping Japanese honorifics and the order in which they are named intact. My first instinct was to do so in this fic. However, I saw NGE with the English dub, so I was used to hearing "Commander Ikari" instead of "Ikari-shi." Because of this, I decided to keep it English in this fic. Ok, so that's about it. Please enjoy, and please review! Oh, yeah, and Gendo being a delinquent in middle school comes from Shinji Ikari Raising Project.

Absolution: \,ab-se-lu-shun\- the state of being absolved; the remission of sin

Absolution in Red

Waves, red waves on a white beach. Never the same, but never different. One after another. Red water and white foam over and over and over again. Then, a particularly strong surge. With the surge came an unconscious man. He tide ebbed him back into the red water slightly, but the next surge carried him all the way onto the beach, face down. A naked girl, seemingly made of light, stood beside him and waited.

Gendo Ikari woke with a start and a beach next to a sea of red water. His head and torso were bandaged, as well as the hand he had thought he'd lost. Rei was standing on the water in front of him. He pushed himself into a sitting position.

"Rei," he said.

"Commander," she responded in that small, quiet voice. "I have something to return to you." She held out his glasses. He touched his face and realized that they were gone.

"Thank you," he said, taking the glasses and placing them on his head. They stayed there for a long while, just staring at each other. Then, Gendo spoke. "Why did you give Instrumentality to Shinji?"

"He deserved it," she said simply.

"Because he didn't use you as a puppet," he guessed.

"Yes." They didn't speak for a long time again.

"It was wrong of me to do so." It was the only apology he could give her. He only had one real apology within him, and that one was reserved for someone else.

"Do you truly believe that or do you say that because Yui thinks that it's wrong?" she asked, knowing the answer. He remained silent. She was the only one out of the two of them who knew.

"This is not Instrumentality. Where is everyone else?"

"You are only the third person to return from Instrumentality. The others will return when they want it enough."

"They're in there?" he asked her, motioning to the rust colored sea. She looked down and nodded. "And Unit 01 is gone," he stated, looking up at the starry sky.

"It will return if Ikari calls for it," Rei said. "And if she wishes, Yui can join Instrumentality and then become individual again. But that will be Ikari's and Yui's choice."

"I see." Again, they didn't speak for a long time. "Was it you who bandaged me?" She shook her head.

"They will all come back whole and bandaged, but not by me." He pushed his glasses up on his nose."Goodbye, Commander," Rei said abruptly.

"Wait!" Gendo said, holding out his bandaged hand. He still had questions.

"Commander Ikari!" he heard a voice yell behind him. It sounded young, female. He turned his head toward the voice but did a double take back toward Rei. She was gone. "Commander!" The girl's voice was closer now. Gendo stood up and brushed the sand from his clothes, stuffed his bandaged hand in his pocket and turned around. The Second Child (Asuka?) was running towards him, her head, eye, hand, and arm bandaged with Shinji following behind her. He looked uninjured, completely without bandages. She came to a halt in front of him, gazing up at him with bright blue eyes. It seemed to him that he'd seen those eyes somewhere else. Oh, yes; her mother had been the scientist to test Unit 02.

"Asuka," he greeted, hoping he got her name correct. She took no issue with it, so he could only assume that he had in fact gotten it correct.

"Where is everybody?" she asked.

"They will be along when they are ready. It may be a long time, but they will come. Hello, Shinji." The boy stayed silent. "Asuka, may I have a moment with Shinji in private?"

"Uh…oh…of course." She wandered off along the beach, hissing "Of course, just send be away to talk to the invincible Shinji, and where am I supposed to go?" Then she started cursing in German. Gendo watched her go with raised eyebrows. Trying to make up for his past sins…discomforted him greatly, but he would not let Yui's last lesson to him be a waste. And once he made up his mind, nothing could stop him. That, and some small part of him that seemed to open when he saw Yui again during the Third Impact wanted to make amends with the boy. He _was_ the boys' father after all; and he was the last part of Yui he had now that the Third Impact had already been achieved.

"Shinji, there are some things that we must discuss. Walk with me?" he asked. The boy nodded and fell in step beside him. "I have not been a father to you," Gendo began. "I want you to know that, though I know you hate me, I never hated you. The prospect of raising a child alone frightened me, and I ran. I've never understood the bonds people form between each other. The only true bond I have ever been able to form was with Yui." He took his glasses and cleaned them with a handkerchief from his pocket. It seemed to Shinji like an insanely, out-of-place normal thing to do. "After Yui disappeared I let my grief and my obsession to get her back overtake me. I…apologize." Shinji looked up at him with wide, unbelieving eyes. He didn't see the commanding, overbearing figure that his father had become to him over the years. All he saw was an awkward, socially inept man who was refusing to meet the eyes of a 14 year-old-boy. "If…you are willing, I would like to try to be a father to you."

"Why?" Shinji asked. "You use people, that's what you do! How do you want to use me now?!"

"I don't-"

"What are you planning?! Why do you need me?! You never cared about me, why start now?!" the boy yelled, tears coming to his eyes. "After all of this, after the end of the world you still want to use me! How could you come to me and try to make excuses for yourself?! Why?! Why now?! You don't care! Why?!" He began to beat his fists on Gendo's chest. Despite his confusion about where his son had come up with this violent streak, and the fact that it hurt like hell because of his bandaged wounds, he let him. He deserved it. He supposed they both did. After Shinji had beat himself out and dissolved into sobs he placed his gloved hands on the boys shoulders. It was the closest he'd ever come to holding his son since he was a baby.

"There is no way left for me to use you, Shinji." He didn't tell Shinji that Unit 01 would only return for him. He wouldn't allow himself to use it against him, but if he told Shinji about that now he would only think that he was trying to use him. "If you don't want me here, I understand." The boy stood there sobbing for a long while.

"N…no. I want…to try…" He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and looked up at Gendo. "It might be good." Gendo turned away toward where Asuka was still fuming.

"Indeed. Perhaps we should return before Asuka becomes angrier."

"It's about time!" she exclaimed when they got back. "I was starting to think that you'd forgotten about me!"

"How could anyone forget about you, Asuka?" Shinji asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Asuka asked accusatorily.

"N-nothing bad!" Shinji cried, drawing back in defense. Gendo ignored the children and looked around the seemingly barren wasteland, clutching at the worsening pain in his chest. Tokyo-3 was the only place that anything specifically physical happened, one could assume, so there may be other cities where they could find food, shelter, clothing, maybe set up some sort of base of operations, some place to live…

"What are we going to do? Tokyo-3 was completely destroyed by that," Shinji said, pointing to the huge, cracked head of Rei, "and nobody's here. What if the rest of the world is like this?"

"We will rebuild it. We may not have the technology, but I think I know enough about electrical engineering to at least get electricity up and running. My guess is that the rest of the world is exactly like it was before Third Impact except for the absence of people. I know for a fact that if we find a car I can get it running, so we will try to drive to another city," Gendo told the two, walking inland.

"You know how to hotwire a car?" Asuka asked, following him.

"It is a useful skill to have when you anticipate the end of the world," he responded enigmatically. "And," he conceded, "I was a delinquent in junior high school." Shinji's mouth dropped open.

"But what if more people come back? How will we know? Will they come back next to the ocean like we did?" Shinji said, recovering from the shock of learning anything personal about his father; especially that he'd once been a delinquent!

"We will stay nearby for a few days to see if more people come. If they do, we can erect a sign to tell people where we decide to stay."

"Where are we gonna stay, though?" Shinji whined.

"Ugh! Where am I supposed to change out of my Plugsuit? And what about bathing? I can't stay here alone with 2 unmarried men!" Asuka exclaimed.

"You seemed to do fine with Mr. Kaji. There is no more society to judge you if you stay alone with 2 unmarried men. Would you prefer the alternative?" he asked harshly, pointing inland. He didn't like the fact that a 14-year-old would impugn his honor so casually. Not to mention that his chest wounds were edging on agony. She harrumphed and crossed her arms over her chest, turning her back on him. "Shinji, Asuka, go farther inland and see if you can find firewood. I will walk along the beach to see if anyone else is here."

"Fine!" Asuka exclaimed, stomping off. Shinji looked back at his father, then turned back and ran after Asuka. As soon as Gendo was sure that they were out of eyeshot he tugged up his red pullover to check the bandaged on his chest. The wound hadn't reopened; it was just very, very sore from Shinji beating on it. He winced slightly as he carefully let his pullover down, then he looked down the beach. No one that he could see was there. There was a building tilting to one side a little way down the beach but it wasn't completely demolished, so he decided to go and look for blankets and clothes for the three of them. He was in luck; the building was a hotel. Even with the Angel attacks, many people stayed in Tokyo-3 because it was the center of business in Japan. If his luck held out, he would have no problem finding enough blankets and clothes. As it turned out, his luck did hold; he found plenty of clothes in plenty of sizes, plenty of sheets and blankets and pillows, and even a suitcase to carry them in. He also found fresh bandages and freeze-dried food in the shelter underneath the hotel. He stuffed everything into the suitcase and set out back to the children.

About half way down the beach, he spotted someone. The person was laying unconscious in the surf, face up. He began to walk a little quicker. When he got a little closer, he stopped. The figure on the beach had blue hair. And it was in a white body suit. He blinked and adjusted his glasses. That couldn't be right, she disappeared when… As he got closer, there was no mistaking it; the fourth person to return from Instrumentality was Rei. As far as he could tell she was even more heavily bandaged than he and Asuka; her head and one eye were bandaged, one hand and both feet. He dropped the suitcase, crouched next to her, and placed to fingers on her jugular. She had a pulse. Then, he pushed the button on her wrist, loosening her plugsuit, and tugged it down to look. His suspicions were right; her chest was even more heavily bandaged than his own. He pressed the button again and the suit deflated again and stayed kneeling beside her. Why would she be here in a plugsuit? For that matter, why was he here? The last thing he remembered was EVA biting him in half; did everyone experience Third Impact like that? He had suspected that it would be like achieving a 400% sync ratio with EVA and the world would just melt into LCL. The fact that they all seemed to come from the sea of LCL seemed to encourage his suspicion. And what would happen when she woke? Would she remember what he had tried to do and cause trouble for him and the others? And how had they been bandaged? There were so many unanswered questions.

Leaving her here was, of course, out of the question. He had been more of a father to the second Rei than he ever had been to Shinji; it just wouldn't feel right. To be honest, it felt like abandoning a child all over again. He wouldn't run away from anything anymore, especially these children. But now the problem was getting Rei back to the others while dragging along the suitcase. He decided to try and find something to carry the girl in back at the hotel. By the time he got to the hotel, found a bellman's cart, rolled it back to Rei, gotten her on it with a pillow under her head and a blanket on top of her and rolled it along with the suitcase back to Shinji and Asuka, it was already dark. The two were sitting beside a small fire with another stack of firewood a little ways off.

"Thank goodness!" Asuka said, seeing him. "I was afraid I'd have to spend the night alone with _him," _she said, jabbing her thumb at Shinji.

"What's under the blanket?" Shinji asked.

"What's with the suitcase?" Asuka asked. Without a word, he set it down and opened it. Asuka squealed with delight. "Fresh clothes! Blankets! Pillows! _Food!_ Where did you find all this, Commander Ikari?!"

"There is a hotel a little way away. Tomorrow, we can all go there and try to set up some type of place to live until more people start coming and the food runs out. I found her on the beach on my way back," he told them both as he moved the blanket back. Asuka's face dropped 4 feet.

"_Rei?!"_ Shinji exclaimed. Then he looked up at Gendo. "How can that…?"

"We won't know until she wakes," he told the boy. As if on cue, Rei's face grimaced in pain and she slowly opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was Gendo and Shinji looking down on her with relief and concern, respectively.

"C…comman…der. Ik…kari..."

"Don't try to sit up, you are badly injured," Gendo said. She rotated her head, looking around and finally seeing Asuka.

"Soryu…You are here as well…"

"That's right, First Child. You can't get rid of me _that_ easily!" Asuka said, frowning.

"Why is the world different?" Rei asked in her quiet way.

"You don't remember?" Shinji asked.

"Remember what?"

"Third Impact!" Asuka responded. "This is the end of the world! We're the only people left! Not even the EVAs are here…"

"We failed…?" Rei asked.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Shinji asked.

"My last clear memory is activating Unit 00's self-destruct to defeat the sixteenth Angel," Rei told them. A tension in Gendo's shoulders that he hadn't know was there left him. So, this was Rei II. How the devil did she become part of Instrumentality?

"We were successful in defeating all the Angels," Gendo told her. "This was Seele's plan all along."

"Seele planned this?! They knew the world was gonna end?!"

"Not exactly. As you know, we were warned in the Dead Sea Scrolls about the Angels. The scrolls also said that if humans were the ones to induce Third Impact that a new stage of human evolution would occur, gathering all individuals into one consciousness. It was called the Human Instrumentality Project. One consciousness meant no more pain, no more misunderstanding, no more wars. With the way the world was at the time, just after the Valentine Ceasefire, Yui, Fuyutsuki and I believed that it would be a brighter future for everyone. After Yui…died Fuyutsuki, Dr. Akagi, and I were the only ones who knew about it. It seems that, if they wish, certain humans can choose to forsake Instrumentality and become individual again. I believe that is what has happened to us." He pushed his glasses farther up on his nose. "More people will come when they are ready."

"You knew what was going to happen? Mother knew this was going to happen?" Shinji asked.

"Not specifically this, but yes."

"Then why did the JSSDF invade NERV?" Asuka asked.

"Seele did not trust NERV personnel or myself, which I suppose was an intelligent insight on their part. We tried to stop Seele from achieving Third Impact." It wasn't really a lie. Not really. Just an omission. One day, when he felt that Shinji could handle the truth, he would tell him about his plans to use Third Impact to be with Yui again.

"Now what is our purpose?" Rei asked. Asuka and Shinji looked at him expectantly.

"We live. We try to rebuild what we once had. Adults will begin to return eventually and when they do we will be able to make a city again. For now, we eat and sleep." His eyes narrowed at Asuka. "Your bandages need to be changed."

"Huh?" Asuka said, her hand going to the bandages on her head. When she looked at her fingers, there was blood on them.

"Come here," he said, taking bandages from the suitcase. Shinji watched as his father delicately replaced the bandages on Asuka and Rei. He never knew that his father could do these things. He knew that Ritsuko had a little bit of medical training and guessed that he learned it from her. It was strange to see his father in this position, caring for the three of them. After he replaced the bandages on the two of them he handed them all some of the freeze-dried food that he had found, they ate, and then they spread the blankets out to sleep. Asuka and Rei fell asleep almost immediately. It was the first time that Shinji could remember that Asuka didn't yell out for Kaji or her mother in her sleep. Rei was also a completely silent sleeper. Shinji just couldn't sleep, though. The events of the day kept replaying in his head, the information he had learned. His father had been a delinquent, his mother knew all along that this would happen, Rei couldn't remember anything… Shinji flopped over toward the dying embers of the fire and noticed that his father wasn't where he had lain. He sat up and looked around, trying to see where the man had gone. Finally, he noticed footprints leading into the small forest that they had found the firewood in. He stood, pushing the blanket off of him, and followed the footprints into the forest until he heard hissing and cursing. It was his father, jacket and red pullover removed, bloody bandages in a pile next to him. He was trying to rebandage his own wounds and from the look of it, he wasn't having much luck. The bandage on his hand was soaked with blood and there was a bloody, jagged line around his back and sided; Shinji guessed that it reached around his chest too. Then he remembered; he had beaten his father's chest when he tried to apologize to him. His face contorted into a horrified grimace. It had to have been excruciating, but he had let him do it.

"Father?" Shinji said. He didn't jump, but Shinji could tell he surprised him. His breathing was labored and uneven, probably due to the pain. He just stood there, staring at the man. The jagged wound across his back, the growing blood spot on the bandage on his forehead, the bloody bandage on his hand.

"Well?" his father said impatiently. "Are you going to help or are you going to stand there?"

"Oh! Uh…but I don't know how to do any of that."

"I will teach you. Come here," he said, a little gentler. Shinji sat in front of him and he handed the boy a roll of bandages. "Go around like this. Keep it tight. Slightly overlap the last strap. Good." Shinji looked up at his father's face as he wound the bandage around his father's chest. He had taken off his glasses and Shinji noticed that the two of them had the same eyes; same color, same shape. He wondered if he would have to wear glasses when he got older.

"Asuka and Rei got hurt inside EVA before Third Impact and they woke up with the bandages. What happened to you?" Shinji asked. The truth was, he wasn't entirely sure. He remembered Unit 01 biting him in half, but that wasn't possible. Shinji had been piloting Unit 01 against the other nine EVAs in the series when it happened. It could have been his punishment for what he had done before he was allowed to join Instrumentality, but he was frankly surprised that he had even been accepted into Instrumentality. What had happened? He knew what had happened to his hand, obviously, but it had been given back to him. He hadn't removed the bandage yet; he didn't even know if Adam was still there. He could only assume that his head had been injured when EVA bit him.

"I'm not sure. I woke up like this," he told Shinji simply.

"Oh." The boy finished with the bandages on his chest and clipped the strip off the rest of the roll. Gendo offered him his hand next. He gently unwrapped the bandage around it and flinched horribly when he saw the hand underneath. It was completely raw, almost like it had been burned of most of its skin. Curiously, it stopped in a neat, straight line a little above his wrist.

"Wrap each finger individually. Start at the wrist. Don't make it too tight, but don't make it too loose, either."

"Right." Shinji worked quickly and efficiently for someone who was doing this for the first time. With little direction from his father, he was doing quite well. Gendo felt something well up inside him…something unfamiliar…something like…pride. When Shinji had finished it was a little clumsy, but all-in-all it was a good job. He flexed his hand and then began to unwrap the bandage around his head. He could have done that one by himself, but he let Shinji do it instead. He had to stand to reach the long gash on his forehead. Soon he clipped the strip from its roll and he was done. Shinji stood back to see if he had missed anything. The bandages were clean and white without a trace of blood on them and the bloody ones were in a pile beside his father. Gendo flexed his hand and twisted his torso, testing the bandages. Then he touched the one at his head.

"You did well," he said. Shinji's eyes widened in surprise. Gendo noticed but didn't say anything about it. He only reached for his pullover and began to dress himself.

"Um..." Shinji said. Gendo merely looked at him. "Where did you learn all of that? Ritsuko?" Gendo snorted.

"She was useless at medical matters. The first time I met Yui she I had gotten myself into a bar fight. She taught me using myself as an example." He reached for his jacket and folded it over his arm. Then he placed his glasses back on his nose. "Come." Shinji followed him back to their campsite. Asuka and Rei were still asleep. He took a few logs and threw them on the embers along with some dried grass they had found in the small forest to get the fire going again. He sat where he had spread a blanket out for himself and Shinji returned to his own "bed." He stared a long time into the fire before Gendo spoke again. "Your teacher told me that you play the cello."

"Uh, yeah," Shinji responded.

"Are you good?"

"Not really. I just like it."

"Perhaps…if we find one you would like to play again…?" Gendo asked. Shinji's head whipped around to face him. His father sat staring into the first like he used to watch the screens at headquarters, fingers laced, head down, with the fire licking and crackling in the reflection of his glasses. For the first time since he had woken up on the beach, Shinji smiled.

"Y…yes."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The next day, Misato and Fuyutsuki washed up on the beach together. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to who was coming or in what order, except that the first to come were NERV personnel. Misato had bandages where she had been shot but Fuyutsuki was whole and well, without injury. Strangely enough the only other NERV employee who ever washed up was Shigeru Aoba. Neither of the other two technicians, Ritsuko Akagi, nor, much to Misato's desperate disappointment, Ryoji Kagi ever appeared on the beach. Gendo could only assume that they enjoyed Instrumentality and wanted to stay. There were bound to be some people who did not want individuality. Instrumentality was the end of pain. He couldn't blame the people who wanted to stay.

About half a year after they appeared on the beach, Gendo took Shinji aside and told him everything, his intentions for Instrumentality, what happened in Central Dogma that day, his conversation with Yui, his "death," and the fact that Shinji could call Unit 01 back at anytime he wanted and that if he did, Yui could return to life. Shinji took it better than was to be expected; he didn't strike Gendo again. He yelled some more, accused his father of using him again, screamed that he never wanted see his father again, and finally dissolved into tears.

"Why?!" Shinji yelled. "Why tell me now?!"

"You deserve the truth," he responded.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?! Why didn't you tell me when we first got here?!"

"I wanted…some chance to be…forgiven. I would not have had that chance if I had told you immediately," he said, fingers laced together.

"You think you have that chance now?!" Shinji yelled. He stayed silent. "You think I could forgive you for using Rei like that?! Do you think Mother could forgive you?!" Gendo stood.

"It is your choice to forgive me or not, as it is hers. I have told you everything I know now," he said, starting back toward the town. It took weeks for Shinji to begin speaking to him again, but he did. He never explicitly said it, but Gendo felt as though Shinji had forgiven him. Later he found out that Shinji began to speak to him only after he had talked to Rei and told her about everything. Rei admitted to him that she had known all along and she had willingly gone along with it until she died. The irony, as it occurred to Gendo, was that if she had lived his idea of Instrumentality probably would have been achieved. The third Rei was a different person from the second, one who felt more loyalty to Shinji than she did to him. But that was in the past now. Gendo and Shinji's relationship was never perfect as time passed. There was always a kind of forced politeness between them but it was much better than what they had once had.

Over two years the more and more people came from the sea until they had enough to start a small community farther inland and at the helm of it all was Gendo Ikari. He proved to be as good a leader in the end of the world as he had been in NERV, delegating different jobs and even joining in on the labor himself. They managed, with just over 300 people, to create a viable community that they could all live and work in. Animals as well as humans began to return, though not from the sea, which provided food. They even set up a farm just outside of the town limits to add to their food production. Then, almost two years after Shinji, Asuka, Gendo, and Rei woke on the beach, Shinji began to ask questions about his mother to the only two people he knew would know, Fuyutsuki and his father. It was no surprise, the boy was 16 now (and almost as tall as his father) and it was natural for him to have questions. The two answered his questions as best as they could, but some things you can only learn by talking to someone. Therefore, it was not to the three of their surprises that exactly two years to the day after Shinji woke on the beach, Unit 01 landed on the beach with a huge impact. It stumbled over to the water, fell to its hands and knees and "vomited" LCL into the sea. With one last roar after the LCL stopped flowing it ceased to move ever again. Everyone but the former NERV personnel was frightened; they thought that it was the end of the world again. They had taken shifts before to search the beach for survivors, but after EVA landed Gendo took all of the shifts on himself. There was a lookout placed on the top of a cliff that overlooked the portion of the beach that the EVA had landed on to placate the frightened people who thought that the EVA had come to destroy them. He came running into town one day and straight to Gendo, yelling "Commander Ikari! Commander Ikari! A woman just washed up on the beach next to the EVA!" Commander was something that everyone had picked up from the NERV personnel and started to call him, even though he didn't consider himself a commander of anything anymore.

"Sit with her until I am finished and can retrieve the both of you," he said, not looking up from the building plans of the first hospital that they were to build in their town of Tokyo-E-Tokyo End.

"Sir, she matches the description of the woman you told us to look for," the scout said. Gendo's head shot up from his work.

"Tell Fuyutsuki to take over. I don't know when I will be back." He then stood up unceremoniously and shot off to the beach. The scout ran to tell Fuyutsuki not to take over looking at the plans for the hospital, but to tell him about the woman. Shinji, Asuka, and Rei were lounging around the small office area where Fuyutsuki and Misato were working. They had finished their lessons for the day along with the other children and were bored, having nothing else to do.

"Dr. Fuyutsuki!" the scout panted, racing into the office.

"Yes?"

"The woman the Commander told us to look for…she's on the beach!" Everyone in the room looked at one another, and then there was a stampede for the door. The poor scout was almost trampled, but he managed to escape intact and follow the others. When they got to the cliff, Gendo was still stumbling toward the woman on the beach. The woman was beginning to push herself up, rubbing her head. She wore a nice blouse and skirt with a lab coat covering it. _There's no doubt about it,_ Fuyutsuki thought, _That's definitely Yui._

Gendo ran to her, hardly believing his eyes. After so long, so, so long, she was finally here again, his Yui… As he reached her he crashed down to his knees to help her stand. She was unbandaged, unlike most of the returnees. She finally made it to her feet in front of him and looked into his eyes. Gazing into her eyes again, her soft, green eyes, it finally hit him that she really was there with him again. "Yui…" he whispered. She reared back and back-handed him as hard as she could, so hard that his glasses flew off his face and landed in the sand. Everyone's mouths dropped open on the cliff and while no one said it, everyone but the scout and possibly Rei was thinking the same thing; _He deserved it._

"What the hell were you thinking, Gendo Rokubungi?!" she seethed. Fuyutsuki saw the confusion on Shinji's face and answered his unasked question.

"Your father took your mother's name when they were married." It surprised Shinji greatly. Such a proud man taking his wife's name?

"How could you?! Did you ever stop to think about anyone but yourself? Do you know how much pain you've caused Shinji and that poor girl?"

"It would have been the same thing," he said. "It still would have been Instrumentality."

"Not to Rei! I can't believe you can really use people like tools-just to see me again! Did it ever occur to you that I might have something to say about your methods? The end doesn't justify the means, Gendo, how many times have I told you that?!" she chastised. "And leaving Shinji with his teacher for 12 years? What the hell is the matter with you, he's your son!"

"You made your displeasure perfectly clear when you bit me in half," he told her. There was none of his characteristic coldness in the voice. "I've tried to make things right with Shinji. I cannot undo what I did. And I've given you my reasons." Obviously, she remembered being trapped in the EVA for so long.

"And has he forgiven you?" she asked a little softer. His head dropped a little.

"I…am not sure," he responded, averting his eyes. She touched the bruise underneath his eye that she had created by slapping him.

"Still the same awkward Rokubungi-kun," she said softly. Then she fell into his arms and hugged him. He wrapped one arm around her back and placed his other hand on the back of her head, holding her close. Shinji and Asuka's faces became red as they watched the public display of affection while Misato's eyebrows were almost into her hairline now. Fuyutsuki was watching with an almost sad expression on his face, while Rei's expression was her usually blank neutrality. Yui opened her eyes briefly and spied the small crowed on the cliff. "We have an audience," she spoke softly into Gendo's ear. Trying to suppress the tingling that crept up his spine, he responded "I don't care." Yui waved brightly to the others on the cliff, still hugging her husband. The scout shamelessly waved back while the NERV personnel tried to duck incase Gendo turned around to see them. Her eyes lingered on Shinji for a moment. "He's afraid of me," she observed sadly. Gendo didn't need to see the group to know who she was talking about.

"He isn't a brave child," he responded. "He has overcome a bit of his cowardice, but I doubt he will ever overcome all of it."

"That isn't any way to speak about your son," she admonished.

"It's the truth," he told her bluntly. Shinji raised his head to see his father and mother standing in each other's arms looking at him. It felt…_real_ to be seeing his mother like this. In the times that he saw her in the EVA it seemed so unreal, like a dream or a hallucination. Just seeing her by herself wouldn't have been so odd, but seeing her standing next to his father, touching him, interacting with not just someone else, but _him_…it was stranger than any dream he had ever had and that was saying a lot. It was as though he had a real family now and they were standing down there waiting for him. More than anything he had dreamed of having a real family and now they were standing just below him. More than anything, he wanted to join them. He stood and began scrambling away to the slope that lead to the beach.

"Shinji!" Asuka said frantically.

"Shinji!" Misato said, trying to catch his arm as he stood. Shinji shook it away, though, and began to run down to the beach. They waited for him with open, happy expressions, even his father, until he had reached them, slowing to a stop as he got to the mother he didn't remember. He was taller than her now, almost as tall as his father. His eyes filled with tears.

"M…mother!" he cried, throwing himself into her arms. She held him like he was a child as Gendo stood slightly apart, not touching them, just looking on. It discomforted him slightly, but the happiness of having Yui back far outweighed the discomfort. And it wasn't just happiness for him; he was glad that Shinji finally had a mother. If he could never be the father Shinji wanted Yui would be the mother he deserved. Her being there wouldn't make up for his shortcomings as a father, nor Shinji's shortcomings as a son, but she would stable their relationship and allow the three of them to be a family. This new world had been named Absolution on the premise that, beyond Instrumentality, all past sins were forgiven and everyone was given a new chance. In this world they could have the family they weren't permitted to have before, maybe even with another member. As Gendo turned his head to look down the beach he spotted Rei standing a little ways apart from them as if she was unsure what to do. That familial instinct that had called Shinji had called her too, and even though she didn't know it consciously, she desperately wanted to be part of this family too. It seemed like the purpose she had been unable to find before, the purpose she had lost with the destruction of the Angels.

"Commander Ikari?" Rei said. Shinji and Yui turned to took in her direction, but then Yui turned her attention to her husband, unsure how he would handle it.

"Yes?" he responded. He knew what she wanted, he wanted to give it to her, he just didn't know what to say or how to say it. He wasn't used to sentimentality anymore. She glanced over at Yui and Shinji, then back to Gendo, unsure of what to say or how to ask the question she wanted to. She couldn't say anything. She didn't know what to say.

"Um..." Shinji said. "The way Rei was born…because of that, wouldn't she be like my sister?" he asked the two adults. Yui said nothing, letting Gendo take it.

"…Yes," he said. A serene smile appeared on Yui's lips. "She would be like your sister." Long ago, he had told Yui that if they had a girl, he wanted to name her Rei. He had named her for the daughter that they had never had. It only seemed fitting, after everything that had happened, that they took her in. A small smile appeared on her lips as she looked at the three of them smiling back at her. She was home. Yui walked over to her and hugged her as well. Shinji walked down the water to where Gendo's glasses had landed, shooed a crab away, and handed them back to him.

"Thank you," he said, placing them on his nose once more. Shinji nodded and then went to talk to his mother and Rei. Gendo just watched them, and small smile gracing his face. Shinji was hugging Rei as Yui laughed at the surprised and slightly harassed look on Rei's face. It felt good to have Yui back again, to have Rei II back. He didn't feel empty anymore, like part of him was gone. He had thought that it had gone with Yui, but surprisingly he had started to heal once he set his mind to trying to make up with Shinji. The others began to come down from the cliff now to meet them. Fuyutsuki and Yui had a happy reunion and Misato, Asuka, and the scout were introduced. Sometime in the midst of all of the introductions, confusion, and celebration, Yui glanced back at him and smiled. He smiled back and rested his hand on Shinji's shoulder. He had much to thank the boy for now, an entire family. Long ago, Fuyutsuki told him that Yui found the most endearing thing about him was that he didn't like to be alone. Thanks to Yui, Shinji, and Rei, now, he didn't have to be.


End file.
